Emergency Conservation Enhancement
for Priority Upper Fraser Stocks
The UFFCA is leading the coordination of emergency conservation enhancement efforts for priority Upper Fraser salmon populations, including natal stream brood stock collection, fry releases, and working closely with Upper Fraser First Nations to identify priority stocks for enhancement.
What is emergency enhancement?
Emergency enhancement increases the number of offspring produced by spawning salmon by improving their chance of survival. In summer and early fall when adult salmon return to their natal streams to spawn, field crews capture some of them as brood (parent) stock. They collect eggs and milt (sperm), fertilize and incubate the eggs, and rear the juvenile salmon to the fry stage in hatchery facilities. Then in the spring, the fry are released back into what would have been their natal streams.
The UFFCA supports Upper Fraser First Nations priorities in the emergency conservation enhancement program, a key outcome of the Big Bar Landslide.
The program has expanded significantly since it began in 2019. While the first few years were largely focused on responding to the Big Bar crisis and its direct impact on salmon, Upper Fraser First Nations are exploring longer-term emergency enhancement and recovery planning beyond the Big Bar response.
Upper Fraser Brood Stock Collection
Chilako brood collection fence
Crew from the Quesnel River Research Center (QRRC) collecting brood stock in the Upper Cariboo
UFFCA and TNG technicians installing the fence to collect Upper Chilcotin Chinook brood stock
Willow River brood collection fence
Jordan Holmes (hired by UFFCA) working with DFO to collect brood stock in the Horsefly
Chinook brood stock collection.
Upper Fraser Sockeye and Chinook Fry Releases
Pete Erickson and Nak’azdli Whut’en members releasing fry on the Salmon River
Stellat’en Fisheries Coordinator Isaiah Reynolds releasing Endako Chinook fry
Takla First Nation Early Stuart sockeye fry release on the Kuzkwa River
Staff from UFFCA, TNG Fisheries, QRRC, and DFO getting ready to release Upper Chilcotin Chinook fry
Shamus Curtis (UFFCA), Leonard English (TNG Fisheries), Chief Lennon Salomon (Yuneŝit’in/TNG) and DFO preparing to release Taseko sockeye fry
UFFCA biologist Shamus Curtis and Nazko First Nation Natural Resources Manager Florian Bergoin at the Quesnel sockeye fry release